Guide, mountain man, Indian Commissioner, Thomas Fitzpatrick
Thomas Fitzpatrick led this
group, which is often cited as the largest party to date to set off
for the Oregon Territory. At the time, the road they
followed was still simply known as the trail marked by numerous
provisioning expeditions for the beaver trade. It wasn't
until later that the overland road would be called the Oregon
Trail.
(click here for more on the Bidwell-Bartleson
party)
By now,
Fitzpatrick and Bridger both recognized that the end of the fur
trade was at hand. Bridger built a fort and trading post on
Black's River on the Oregon Trail, west of the Rocky Mountains, and
Fitzpatrick acted as a guide for numerous expeditions.
De Smet, now on
his third overland trip to the Oregon territory, records that the
wagon train left Westport, Missouri, on May 10th. The caravan was made up
of trappers and teamsters, missionaries, and dream-struck
pioneering families determined to reach the promised land of
Oregon.
Wrote George Seward, a
historian for the Bidwell-Bartleson party: "They had with them as
guide one of the half-dozen people in the world best qualified for
that work…no less a one than Thomas Broken Hand Fitzpatrick, among
the most notable of the mountain men." They reckoned that
without him they never would have reached California,
"because of our inexperience. Afterwards, when we came in
contact with the Indians, our people were so easily excited that if
we had not had with us an old mountaineer the result would
certainly have been disastrous.